This invention relates to a break-open firearm with at least one barrel and a cartridge ejection device in a monobloc unit, exhibiting per barrel a cartridge ejector movable in the barrel direction, this cartridge ejector, during tilting of the barrel, being movable via a cam at the cartridge extractor and by an appropriate guidance of the cam in the breech casing from a retracted position into a protruding position, and performing, during straightening (i.e., closing), a reverse movement wherein, during straightening of the barrel, an ejector spring can be tensioned at the same time, and, per barrel, a control bolt is provided extending through the barrel wall and effecting, after a shot has been fired, that the cartridge ejector during tilting remains in a tensioned position, and the tensioned position can be abolished only when the at least one barrel has been entirely tilted.
Such firearms, including rifles and shotguns, besides being used in hunting, are utilized predominantly in shooting which simulates hunting; they are exposed to very high stresses on account of the high number of rounds that are fired. The parts of the cartridge ejector mechanism ar especially affected in this regard. Primarily for reasons of space, the parts cannot be dimensioned as would be necessary from a stress viewpoint. If the cartridge ejector mechanism is controlled by way of the triggering process, it may happen--because after termination of a hunt or a competition the springs of the strikers are relaxed due to an empty strike without cartridges--that during the subsequent opening of the firearm the ejector mechanism is activated. This is disadvantageous for the firearm because the cartridge ejector mechanism, on account of lack of cartridges, need not perform any energy-consuming work and for this reason there are high tension peaks.
In EP 103,568, B1, the mechanical a control of the ejector device by the trigger mechanism is substituted by a control via the gas pressure produced during the firing of a cartridge in the cartridge chamber. In such a firearm, a control bolt is countersunk into the wall of each barrel, this bolt being moved somewhat toward the outside by the expanding case wall, and this minimal movement of the control bolt has the effect that the tip of the control bolt can engage in a shape-mating fashion in the cartridge extractor and maintain the latter in a tensioned condition. By operating an ejector pawl at the end of the tilting of the barrel, this connection is eliminated and the impulse, transmitted thereby suddenly from a tensioned spring to the ejector mechanism, is utilized for the ejection of the cartridge case.
The cartridge ejector device described in EP 103,568 B1 has the drawback that, in the practical realization of this idea, other disadvantages had to be tolerated. The control of the tensioning means is accommodated between the barrel and the cartridge extractor, which is extremely unsatisfactory from the viewpoint of manufacturing technique. The slight movement of the control bolt in the barrel wall by only a few tenths of a millimeter also has an adverse effect on reliability, especially since readjustment or a reworking operation is impossible in this structure.